Omineca Mountains

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Omineca Mountains
The Ominecas
Looking west to Pelly Lake, British Columbia.jpg
The Ingenika, Tucha, and Russel ranges overlooking Pelly Lake
Highest point
Elevation 2,400 m (7,900 ft)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Dimensions
Area47,901 km2 (18,495 sq mi)
Geography
BCRelief2 Ominecas.png
Location map of the Omineca Mountains
Country Canada
Region British Columbia
Range coordinates 56°30.0′N125°30.2′W / 56.5000°N 125.5033°W / 56.5000; -125.5033
Parent range Interior Mountains

The Omineca Mountains, also known as "the Ominecas", are a group of remote mountain ranges in the Boreal Cordillera of north-central British Columbia, Canada. They are bounded by the Finlay River on the north, the Rocky Mountain Trench (here filled by Lake Williston) on the east, the Nation Lakes on the south, and the upper reaches of the Omineca River on the west. [1] [2] [3] They form a section of the Continental Divide, that, in this region, separates water drainage between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. The lower course of the Omineca River flows through the heart of the range. To the south of the Ominecas is the Nechako Plateau, to the west the Skeena Mountains and Hazelton Mountains, to the north the Spatsizi Plateau and the Stikine Ranges, while east across the Rocky Mountain Trench are the Muskwa Ranges.

Contents

"The Omineca" or "the Omineca Country" is the entire area plus some of the northern Nechako Plateau adjacent to the Ominecas, where there has been more settlement and, in the past, extensive gold-mining exploration and prospecting (in the same period as the Omineca, Fraser Canyon and Cariboo Gold Rushes, i.e. 1860s).

Sub-ranges

Rivers

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cassiar Mountains</span> Mountain range in British Columbia and Yukon Territory, Canada

The Cassiar Mountains are the most northerly group of the Northern Interior Mountains in the Canadian province of British Columbia and also extend slightly into the southernmost Yukon Territory. They lie north and west of the Omineca Mountains, west of the northernmost Rockies and the Rocky Mountain Trench, north of the Hazelton Mountains and east of the Boundary Ranges. They form a section of the Continental Divide, that, in this region, separates water drainage between the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Yukon-Tanana Uplands province, which in turn are part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interior Mountains</span> Group of mountain ranges in British Columbia and Yukon

The Interior Mountains or Northern Interior Mountains are the semi-official names for an expansive collection of mountain ranges that comprises much of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia and a large area of southern Yukon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Columbia Interior</span> Interior region of British Columbia, Canada

The British Columbia Interior, popularly referred to as the BC Interior or simply the Interior, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. While the exact boundaries are variously defined, the British Columbia Interior is generally defined to include the 14 regional districts that do not have coastline along the Pacific Ocean or Salish Sea, and are not part of the Lower Mainland. Other boundaries may exclude parts of or even entire regional districts, or expand the definition to include the regional districts of Fraser Valley, Squamish–Lillooet, and Kitimat–Stikine.

The Omineca Gold Rush was a gold rush in British Columbia, Canada in the Omineca region of the Northern Interior of the province. Gold was first discovered there in 1861, but the rush didn't begin until late in 1869 with the discovery at Vital Creek. There were several routes to the goldfields: two were from Fort St. James, one of which was a water route through the Stuart and Tachie Rivers to Trembleur Lake to Takla Lake and the other was overland, called the Baldy Mountain route. A third route came in overland from Hazelton on the Skeena River and a fourth route used the Fraser River and crossed over the Giscome Portage to Summit Lake, through McLeod Lake, and up the Finlay River to the Omineca River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Swannell</span> Canadian surveyor

Frank Cyril Swannell was one of British Columbia's most famous surveyors.

The McGregor Plateau is a sub-plateau of the Nechako Plateau, the northernmost major subdivision of the Interior Plateau spanning the inland regions of the Pacific Northwest. Located in British Columbia, Canada, to the east of the city of Prince George, British Columbia, the McGregor Plateau lies between the main spine of the Northern Rocky Mountains on the east and the Fraser River on the west, beginning on its southeast at the confluence of the Torpy River with the Fraser and running northwest, parallel to the Fraser and the Rockies, to end in the area of the Arctic and Pacific Lakes to the north of the great bend in the Fraser River just upstream from and to the northeast of Prince George. The McGregor Plateau is very mountainous in character and includes several large rivers, the largest being the McGregor River and Herrick Creek. Included in the McGregor Plateau is the McGregor Range, which lies between the McGregor and Torpy Rivers and the Dezaiko Range, which lies between Herrick and McGregor Rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fraser Plateau</span>

The Fraser Plateau is an intermontane plateau. It is one of the main subdivisions of the Interior Plateau located in the Central Interior of British Columbia.

References

  1. BC Names/GeoBC entry "Omineca Mountains"
  2. "S. Holland, Landforms of British Columbia, Province of British Columbia, 1976, pp 63-65" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
  3. "map from Bulletin 48: Landforms of British Columbia" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-04-26.